Ellison: Still more wins to come for McAMS Yamaha in 2017

James Ellison is confident he can still take more wins for McAMS Yamaha and potentially ignite a late MCE British Superbike Showdown charge after his maiden win for the team in a thrilling race two at Cadwell Park.

The British rider saw off a spirited fight from Smiths Racing BMW duo Lee Jackson and Peter Hickman for his first win of 2017 and the team’s first-ever BSB win after Jake Dixon and Shane Byrne both dropped out of contention while leading race two.

Ellison concedes his 15th BSB career win may have been a long time coming having demonstrated front-running pace throughout 2017 but feels it could spark a late revival to hunt down the top six contenders for the Showdown. Ellison has also hinted his 2018 plans remain at McAMS Yamaha in BSB.

“This win has been in there all year as we’ve had strong pace at every single round expect Thruxton so to get McAMS Yamaha’s first Superbike win is pretty special,” Ellison said. “I wish we could have got it earlier in the season and there is still potential for many more to come this year and hopefully next year so big thank you to them for putting the team together in the first place.

“It has been a disappointing year for me not to give the team the results that I feel I and McAMS Yamaha deserve. We’ve had a few mishaps and a bit of bad luck but we have had the pace every single weekend. It’s nice to reward them with the win. Everyone is going to enjoy this one.

“Lee Jackson put in a great race at the start and good to battle with him as I haven’t done much this year. He had more pace than Shakey at the beginning so it was hard to make a move because it would have had to be a big lunge and potentially take both Shakey and I out. After following Lee for a few laps I knew where he was strong and I was strong so I made my move and controlled it from there.”

Ellison heads into the triple-header at Silverstone, the final round before the three-round Showdown, in ninth place in the BSB riders’ championship, 42 points off Luke Mossey who holds the final top six spot.